PineTab 2 works but no WiFi or Bluetooth driver for now. Possible to add a USB dongle or USB-C to Ethernet to install missing apps though then work. Also not super powerful so even though I bet Blender3D works, doubt it'd be pleasant for heavy scenes.
utopiah
joined 2 years ago
As a shareholder (which I'm not), it's absolutely amazing.
As a human being though... it's simple to look at the history of the company, from its inception based on nepotism and locking-down was hitherto the common good, to going from one place of monopoly (OS, app, cloud) to another (extending to whatever is trendy at the moment e.g XR with HoloLens, AI with OpenAI, etc).
It's IMHO one of the very worst thing that could have happened to humanity in terms of cognitive empowerment. Apple is not far behind but in terms of locking up an entire ecosystem but Microsoft, sadly, is doing it better.
To clarify what I mean is that Microsoft is the business embodiment of learned helplessness. Most people would shrug at the quality of software they provide, the price, etc ONLY because they are convinced, wrongfully so, that they are is no legitimate alternative. If users were actually able to chose, not being coerced into but properly chose, by experiencing alternatives, the World would be totally different. Instead of having computer users who feel an adversarial relationship to their devices, we would have a much stronger relation of "this is MY device" the same way a lot (not all) of people have a repair toolbox at home. They know they can try to fix something in THEIR home, even improve it. Most people understand it won't be easy, they might mess it up, but it's possible to try. Not in software, and that's entirely Microsoft "success". Maybe in an alternative reality others, like Apple, would have made that happen to, but in our reality I blame Microsoft, Bill Gates upbringing from his legal mindset father and well connected mother.
We could have a world were users own their devices, have a challenging yet empowering relationship to technology, starting with software, and instead we have exploitative learning helplnessness. So yes, Microsoft is that bad.
FWIW the "opposite", namely Webseed, exists http://bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0019.html so... maybe some already do but it's not even noticed because Wedseed of mirrors handle the load?
You can check my post history but I'm a dev who also play and had no problem with Linux for years. I don't play emulation (which is cool, even have a RPi with arcade joystick) but modern games (Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Ruiner, and some indies) including VR (Half-life: Alyx, Virtual virtual reality, Eye of the template, Cubism, etc) both on desktop and on the SteamDeck. Well it's been few years and I can tell you the tinker to play ratio is easily 99.9% in favor of playing. I don't tinker with drivers or anything of the sort (unless I have to work with CUDA, but still then no problem) but it's true that before buying a game I check ProtonDB to insure it will actually work.
Now in terms of distribution I'm not sure it matters much, what I would though highly recommend is that you make few extra partitions, at least /home this way if you do decide to format (because you somehow broke the OS, want to hop distros, etc) then you will keep you data without having to copy anything on another drive or even slower through the network. It makes changing a breeze.
PS: IMHO as a dev do tinker as much as you need, it's the best way to learn and see which distro is actually the best for you, just backup your data first then you can go "crazy", enjoy it's definitely worth it, even more so as a dev who can at any time say "Oh... that part sucks, I can change it", it's literally liberating.
I should clarify, the Quest does work on Linux for streaming if you use ALVR, one just has to tinker a bit. Apologies forgot about that solution.
Ah yes forgot about that despite actually using it! AFAIK it can support SteamVR because my goal while tinkering with it was testing SteamVR on the Apple Vision Pro via ALVR (Air Light VR). So yes it can be done, I even made ALVR work on the SteamDeck more than a year ago, just to tinker.
Anyway back to Steam Link does work on Linux, sadly streaming VR does not work on Linux, at least today when I tried and despite having SteamVR installed. Maybe some tinkering is required.
My formulation wasn't clear, I meant to say I'm happy to support creators in general that make quality content, software or not, but I would always prefer to support open source, open hardware, remixable content, etc rather than closed and proprietary alternatives. I listed games as very rare examples where I'm still happy to support them even if I still wish that the software itself would be made open, even if delayed as Quake or Doom for examples have been. Does it make more sense now?
FWIW I did build and run Monado, even presented at FOSSXR on WebXR, so I'm relatively confident I understand the status of XR support. Here the problem is not a lack of capability of the OS is my point, it's "only" a business decision from one single vendor that yes is popular on low-end hardware.
I mean if the vendor specifically decides NOT to support Linux AND there are viable alternative that do, e.g Valve Index, that run IMHO some of the best content, i.e Half-life:Alyx, then IMHO popularity is indeed important but it does show it's not an OS problem.
AFAIK it's Windows only https://www.meta.com/en-gb/help/quest/articles/headsets-and-accessories/oculus-link/requirements-quest-link/ so some things work, e.g adb so you can install APKs or use scrcpy but you can't rendering on desktop via e.g SteamVR and use the Quest officially.
I mean... it just works? Since the Index is out it's just been working basically. Not sure what else would be needed. Sure being able to use Quest headsets would be nice but unless Meta decides to open up, I don't think it would happen. IMHO that's a vendor problem, not the OS lacking support, sadly.
Unless it's for games that use shitty anticheat solutions probably not a good reason anymore due to the SteamDeck, a LOT of games do work and it's possible to check before hand via ProtonDB.
So it was a fair point 5 years ago, now most AAA games, including VR games, do work without tinkering.